Carolina Pedrazzi
Aug 01, 2025

On Thursday, more than seventy women from Umm al-Kheir—ranging from teenagers to the elderly—launched an open-ended hunger strike until Hathaleen’s body is returned by the Israeli police. The hunger strike is also in protest of the ongoing detention of several residents of the village, including Hathaleen’s brothers and cousins, following his murder.

Hathaleen’s killing was just the latest violent attack on the Palestinian community in Masafer Yatta, a string of villages and hamlets in the south Hebron hills. For years, residents of Masafer Yatta have faced repeated attacks, expulsion orders, home demolitions, property destruction, harassment, arrests, and killings by Israeli soldiers and settlers. Their struggle to preserve their homes and land was the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary, No Other Land, which Hathaleen helped make.

Hathaleen’s killing on Monday shone yet another spotlight on the wanton violence Palestinians face on a daily basis from Israeli settlers and soldiers, who operate with blanket impunity—both in Masafer Yatta, in particular, and the occupied West Bank, in general. Over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank since October 7, 2023.